Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

Thirty years after the accident at Three Mile Island shattered Americans' trust in nuclear power, lawmakers are touting a nuclear rebirth as a safe, green way to wean the United States off foreign oil. "We have the enormously powerful opportunity for a nuclear renaissance in our country. We need to pursue that aggressively and effectively to meet all of our energy and environmental goals," Senator David Vitter told a hearing of the Senate subcommittee on clean air and nuclear safety this week. No new reactors have been opened in the United States since the accident at Three Mile Island in central Pennsylvania, which began to unfold in the early hours of March 28, 1979 when cooling water started seeping through an open valve in a reactor.

covered the Three Mile Island accident for The Inquirer and has written often about nuclear issues. She currently lives in Maine. Thirty years ago, the nation was coming off a crippling energy crisis, rooted in our dependence on foreign oil. At the time, nuclear power held out the promise of limitless, cheap, reliable power supplies. Then, early in the morning of March 28, 1979, a thunderous burst of steam echoed over the Susquehanna River. The nuclear promises went up in smoke, too.

Dick Thornburgh had a full plate that Wednesday. Two months into his term as governor, there had been an early morning accident at Three Mile Island. Thornburgh, who earned a degree in engineering before going to law school, knew immediately that this was a crisis. But with no actionable information in hand, he returned to a meeting with lawmakers while top aides worked to get a handle on the problem. "Till I had some sense of what this involved, I didn't want to alarm anybody or comfort them," Thornburgh said in an interview recently.

Shortly after I arrived at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)'s headquarters in Washington, D.C., at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, I got a call from the commission's emergency center in Bethesda, Maryland. The number two reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania had declared a general emergency. There weren't supposed to be serious accidents at nuclear power plants and having to deal with one led to some, let us say, out-of-the-ordinary, and even absurd, behavior. NRC Chairman Joe Hendrie was with his daughter, who was undergoing dental surgery. As the senior commissioner on duty, I took over the first day and arranged for the Bethesda staff to brief the commissioners--Peter Bradford, Richard Kennedy, and myself. The other commissioner, John Ahearne, had gone off on his own to Bethesda. The lawyers said we had to keep a transcript, as the meeting was not public. I thought this would interfere with serious discussion, so I opened the door and pronounced the meeting public.

Thirty years ago Saturday, people central Pennsylvania awoke to an alarming bulletin. A malfunction had occurred in the reactor's cooling system in Unit 2. Radiation - an alarming word - was reportedly leaking. Host Scott Simon reflects on the 30th anniversary of the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. He also checks in with Alan McDonald, nuclear analyst for the International Atomic Energy Agency and Dan Reicher, Google's director of climate change and energy initiative, about the current and future use of nuclear energy in the U.S.

Thirty years ago this Saturday, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania malfunctioned, sparking a meltdown that resulted in the release of radioactivity. It was the worst nuclear accident in US history. The accident at Three Mile Island fueled the nuclear debate in this country that continues to rage to this day. We speak with anti-nuclear activist Harvey Wasserman. [includes rush transcript]

Arjun Mahkijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, looks back at the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown. The accident turned the public against nuclear power and Wall Street was reluctant to invest money in new plants. He tells host Bruce Gellerman that financing nukes may still be a risky business.

Three Mile Island Revisited - One spring day 30 years ago, Mary Osborn rose early to share breakfast with her husband before he left for an out-of-town construction job. At his car just before 6 a.m., he called her name. "He said, 'Come out here and smell the air.'" Osborn recalled. "Sometimes we could smell the chocolate from the Hershey's factory, or the cows up on the hill." She walked outside and was struck immediately by a sharp metallic tang. "The air was still. There were no birds. Usually at that time of year, they're chattering away in the morning," Osborn said. "All we could smell and taste was metal."

People died--and are still dying--at Three Mile Island. As the thirtieth anniversary of America's most infamous industrial accident approaches, we mourn the deaths that accompanied the biggest string of lies ever told in US industrial history. As news of the accident poured into the global media, the public was assured there were no radiation releases. That quickly proved to be false. The public was then told the releases were controlled and done purposely to alleviate pressure on the core. Both those assertions were false.

RADIOACTIVE IODINE RELEASES FROM JAPAN'S FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI REACTORS MAY EXCEED  THOSE OF THREE MILE ISLAND BY OVER 100,000 TIMES Institute Calls for More Intensive Contingency Planning by Japanese Authorities; U.S. Should Move as Much Spent Fuel as Possible to Dry Storage to Reduce Most Severe Risks and Suspend Licensing and Relicensing during Review

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending investigators to the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant after a small amount of radiation was detected there. About 150 employees were sent home Saturday afternoon after the radiation was detected at the central Pennsylvania plant. Officials say there is no public health risk. Exelon Nuclear spokeswoman Beth Archer says investigators are searching for a cause of the release. She says the radiation was quickly contained. Tests showed the contamination was confined to surfaces inside the building.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending investigators to the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant after a small amount of radiation was detected there. About 150 employees were sent home Saturday afternoon after the radiation was detected at the central Pennsylvania plant. Officials say there is no public health risk. Exelon Nuclear spokeswoman Beth Archer says investigators are searching for a cause of the release. She says the radiation was quickly contained. Tests showed the contamination was confined to surfaces inside the building.

Radioactive dust unexpectedly blew out of a pipe being cut by workers during weekend maintenance at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, and officials on Monday were trying to determine exactly how and why it happened. The accident at the central Pennsylvania plant - the site of the nation's worst nuclear power plant disaster - exposed a dozen employees to radiation, but the public was in no danger, plant officials and government regulators said. Plant officials likened workers' maximum exposure to the equivalent of two medical X-rays, while the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the workers were exposed to a small fraction of the annual federal regulatory limit.

Radioactive dust unexpectedly blew out of a pipe being cut by workers during weekend maintenance at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, and officials on Monday were trying to determine exactly how and why it happened. The accident at the central Pennsylvania plant - the site of the nation's worst nuclear power plant disaster - exposed a dozen employees to radiation, but the public was in no danger, plant officials and government regulators said. Plant officials likened workers' maximum exposure to the equivalent of two medical X-rays, while the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the workers were exposed to a small fraction of the annual federal regulatory limit.